Holography and Phases of Strongly Coupled Matter

The research project  will focus on applications of the holographic gauge/gravity duality to the description of the dense state of strongly interacting  matter, and in particular to static and dynamical properties of neutron stars. The thesis work will consist in constructing models for the baryonic phase of holographic QCD (based on the V-QCD class of theories)  at high density; in studying the corresponding equilibrium equation of state and phase diagram; in  constructing realistic models which interpolate between the holographic approach at high density (well above nuclear saturation density) with nuclear physics models at lower densities. The out of equilibrium dynamics  of the corresponding phases will be investigated, using well established techniques from holography. A particular emphasis will be placed in computing in  the holographic model quantities that can connect to observation in the context of neutron star (mass-radius relations, the dynamics of mergers and eventually gravitational wave observations.
This thesis will be important to establish a realistic holographic model for neutron star dynamics  which can potentially describe the out-of-equilibrium regime of the merger and post-merger phase of neutron star binary mergers, and connected to future  gravitational wave observations.